Investigation on Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) binding efficiency and antibacterial activity of ZnO nanoparticles

Biomolecule-NPs interaction is extremely important in various biomedical applications especially for assessing the macrostructural effects of nanoparticles on proteins. We prepared ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) of average dimension, similar to 11 nm, using citrus lemon extract assisted green synthetic strategy. The binding interaction with Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was monitored from changes in inherent fluorescent emission characteristics of BSA and synchronized emission spectra of component fluorophores in presence of ZnO NPs.Molecular docking studies conducted to analyse the binding sites and associated parameters. Here in the sample possess very strong interaction with BSA. Comparison of binding constant with similar studies indicates the superior performance of ZnO NPs developed using lemon fruit extract. Molecular docking studies disclosed the mode of interactions and the negative value of binding models indicates a worthy and feasible interaction. Antibacterial activity of ZnO NPs was tested against K. pneumoniae, S. aureus, E coli and P. mirabilis bacterial pathogens. The zone of inhibition and minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentrations were also determined. The developed ZnO NPs exhibits antibacterial activity against the studied pathogens.